Monday, December 15, 2008

Traditions

I've been out-of-town for a wedding and haven't been able to post. Sorry.

We went to a wedding at the Antrim, an 1844 mansion in Taneytown, Maryland, near Gettysburg, PA, where a friend of ours from law school married another lawyer that she met in the D.C. area. She's Catholic and he's Jewish and Catholic so I wondered about the ceremony. We were greeted at the hotel with a very nice note from the bride and groom to-be thanking us for coming and promising a service that would honor both of their traditions. The service was terrific, officiated by a Rabbi who teaches with the Jesuits at Georgetown University. Not only were the traditions very interesting, the Rabbi explained them in a very interesting way. Even the homily (which is overrated for weddings as far as I'm concerned) was very interesting. As some of you may know, my Dad's field is comparative religion, which he has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He even published a book titled, "Symbol and Ceremony" about rituals and traditions which is used as a textbook by numerous professors. So maybe I'm biased, but I thought the explanations for the various traditions were great.

Anyway, back to baseball, the Rabbi (I know, more from the wedding...) mentioned that the groom was a Yankee fan, but that he didn't know about the bride's team. Well the bride hollered out, "Reds." A classic wedding moment. (But only the second best from this wedding -- the best man dropped the groom's ring, and said, "Oh, shit" loud enough for me to hear (in the third row).) To which the bride announced, "it's okay, it was his ring not mine."

More baseball (and more wedding...). When we got to the reception, we each got an envelope with, get this, a baseball card of the bride and groom, complete with vital stats such as first date, engagement date, etc. The photo on the card is from the groom's seats at the now vacant Yankee stadium. We were fortunate enough to have gone to a game their with the happy couple last summer (we saw the Reds beat the Yankees) and have the same pose. In fact, it was Rachel's status photo on facebook for some time last summer. If you look at her page, you'll probably be able to see the photo. The envelope also included a ticket (think Ticketmaster) with a table assignment. The tables were numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. by Yankees stars' numbers, 1-Billy Martin, 2-Derek Jeter, 3-Babe Ruth, etc. We were at table 8-Yogi Berra. It was like deja vu all over again.

The party favors were Christmas tree ornaments, shaped and painted like baseballs, and mini Louisville Sluggers, with the couple's names and wedding date. Our ornament is on the tree as I write this. Finally, the reception wrapped-up (it aint over til it's over) with Sinatra's "New York, New York" just like a Yankee home game. (I won't get into the Snorks on the groom's cake.)

I would say that would be a great wedding to go to. My wife would not have appreciated all of the extras, such as the table numbers coinciding with Yankee greats, like I would. I would have been wondering what next great surprise was around the corner at that event. Sounds like fun. Now back to the Reds, it is time for Walt to pick up an outfielder.

Blumer, I agree, of course, that we need an outfielder. I'm pushing for Juan Rivera, but have been considering more the possibility of trading for Andruw Jones, mentioned previously on this blog. The more I think about it the more I like it. What do you think?